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Painting question

3K views 25 replies 14 participants last post by  wngd 
#1 ·
I'm trying to decide if I want to attempt painting on my fairing. I always like to do things myself and enjoy learning new things. So I'm thinking I want to paint my MS fairing with a 2 tone scheme like this. (this is done in Photoshop).
Land vehicle Vehicle Motorcycle Car Automotive tire

My question has to do with the clear coat. I want the gloss to be consistent on the blue and black sections, so should I spray over the black center section with clear coat after I do the blue on the sides? If so, how would I prep the black section?
Do I need to sand it first with 1000 or 1500? I don't want to paint black if I can avoid another paint color. Just looking for help from painters on the right way to do this if I decide to go for it.
 
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#2 ·
I'm trying to decide if I want to attempt painting on my fairing. I always like to do things myself and enjoy learning new things. So I'm thinking I want to paint my MS fairing with a 2 tone scheme like this. (this is done in Photoshop).
View attachment 55879
My question has to do with the clear coat. I want the gloss to be consistent on the blue and black sections, so should I spray over the black center section with clear coat after I do the blue on the sides? If so, how would I prep the black section?
Do I need to sand it first with 1000 or 1500? I don't want to paint black if I can avoid another paint color. Just looking for help from painters on the right way to do this if I decide to go for it.
Can't help with your question but i like the paint scheme :D
Practice on yours and then do mine!
 
#3 ·
I'm trying to decide if I want to attempt painting on my fairing. I always like to do things myself and enjoy learning new things. So I'm thinking I want to paint my MS fairing with a 2 tone scheme like this. (this is done in Photoshop).
View attachment 55879
My question has to do with the clear coat. I want the gloss to be consistent on the blue and black sections, so should I spray over the black center section with clear coat after I do the blue on the sides? If so, how would I prep the black section?
Do I need to sand it first with 1000 or 1500? I don't want to paint black if I can avoid another paint color. Just looking for help from painters on the right way to do this if I decide to go for it.
OK, first you sand down your fairing to 400 grit wet or dry. Decrease it with a good degreaser. If it's plastic or fiberglass shoot a nice coat of "Sandable" scratch filling primer. Sand sand it with 400 paper and shoot the whole thing with black paint. First shoot a light tack coat, then shoot to nice cover coats. After that cures for a few days depending on the weather, layout you blue stripes with low-tach painters tape mask off the black and shoot a light tack coat of your blue, let that set up for a few minutes and shoot two nice cover coats. Let that sit for at least a day and gently peel off your low tack tape. Now you will have some ridges where the two paints meet. (There are different ways to do this, but this is how I learned to do it at the custom car shop I worked at)

with 400 paper, lightly sand the sharp edge being really careful not to sand through any of these paints. Love the sword brush up and do a heavy pinstripe line to cover it. Since the blue is higher than the black a thin pinstripe line next to the heavy pinstripe line on the lower black color sets it off just right. When this is dry sand all of the blue and all of the black carefully with 800 paper.(It should be smooth but very tiny imperfections are okay because the clear coat will cover them) give the whole thing attack coat of clear, wait three minutes spray on a cover coat of clear, wait 4 minutes minutes spray on another cover coat of clear, wait five minutes and spray on another coat of clear, wait six minutes and spray on another coat of clear. You now have a very thick clearcoat but that's okay because you in a sand most of it off. Let it dry for about three days and start sanding it with 400 paper. Send it until it is smooth but do not sand through the clearcoat. You will have sanded 80 to 90% of it off and the pinstripes and both of the different colors should be covered by a smooth coat of clear with no bumps or ridges. If you have bumps or ridges, load the gun with more clearcoat and start over again. Give it at least four nice wet coats of clear. Give that a few days to dry lightly sand it with 400 to knock the gloss off and then with 800. If you wanna go up to 1000 1200 or 1500 that's fine that will make the polishing part easier. At 800, I start with the polishing. Polishing is the art painting. I can paint something with a spray can, give it a nice coat of clear, polish it perfectly and it looks as good as a high dollar paint. Go on ebay and get a spray can of house of Kolor paint
http://www.ebay.com/itm/KBC05-COBAL...0414102815&pt=Motors_Automotive_Tools&vxp=mtr

depending on what color you decide to use you might want to give them a call to make sure you use the proper base coats for the color you want like a candy color or a flip-flop.

But trust me on the clearcoat,
http://www.valsparrefinish.com/clearcoats_refinish_AC4400.jsp



Use that! Make sure you get the reducer and the activator. You will love this clearcoat! You could put it on with a paintbrush and his long as you sanded smooth and polish it your results will be good! (That's what they did with the Rolls-Royce in the old days, 24 coats of hand-painted lacquer paint sanded and polish by hand to an immaculate finish! (That's what I've been told anyway from respectable people in the business)

good luck and holler at me if you have any questions! You can also go on YouTube and watch video tutorials of guys painting!

I almost forgot, before you shoot your color coat or clearcoat make sure you gently wipe your surfaces down with a tack cloth. And don't touch them with your fingers because the amino acids in the skin oils will cause all kinds of problems. Ask your person at the auto body supply shop about a good degreaser that you can use after sanding in between coats.

And lastly, anytime you screw up it's okay, just send out your screwup, touch up that spot and keep going. (If it's a metallic or metal flake color be sure to watch a tutorial on YouTube in how to lay the metal flake evenly. How I do it, is I shoot a tack coat on going left to right. Then I shoot my first cover coat tilting the gun slightly to the left and spraying up and down. Then I will spray a diagonal coat. Then I will look at it every which way in the light and if it looks good I'll stop because the next thing it does is gets clearcoat! If it doesn't look like it's laid on with outlines are shadows I'll dust light coats on in all directions until the metal flake looks right. Then it's on to clearcoat.

If you use those giant global metallic flakes you need a special large-size nozzle for your spray gun. And when you spray the flakes on you have to let it dry because some of the flakes will be standing up on their edge. You have to put a rubber glove on and gently slide your hand over them to make them lay down flat before applying the candy color or the clear coat.
 
#5 ·
I'm trying to decide if I want to attempt painting on my fairing. I always like to do things myself and enjoy learning new things. So I'm thinking I want to paint my MS fairing with a 2 tone scheme like this. (this is done in Photoshop).
View attachment 55879
My question has to do with the clear coat. I want the gloss to be consistent on the blue and black sections, so should I spray over the black center section with clear coat after I do the blue on the sides? If so, how would I prep the black section?
Do I need to sand it first with 1000 or 1500? I don't want to paint black if I can avoid another paint color. Just looking for help from painters on the right way to do this if I decide to go for it.
Sorry I don't think I was paying attention, if your fairing is already black, and you want to add the blue stripes, you still have to use 400 sandpaper to sand the entire thing "knocking on the gloss off" but no more than that. Use low-tack tape. (Get it at the auto body supply shop) layout your blue stripes, mask off the black you don't want painted blue, shoot your blue, gently pull your tape, sand your transition between blue and black, by sword brushes (you will need to practice pinstriping a little) (I have this little trick I devised, where I take a lower part of an aluminum crutch, the straight part with the rubber end, and I place it on the car and hold it with my left hand and place my wrist with my hand holding the sword brush to help me steady it, otherwise I couldn't do it. It takes a little practice get yourself a car hood, or pinstripe all the doors in your house until you're good at it.

Or you can buy stick on decal pinstripes and put those on and I'm pretty sure you can clearcoat over them. Ask the guy at the auto body supply shop, if they make it he will tell you.


Anyway, then just follow the rest of the directions from my last post and you will not have to re-spray the black. (But you will be clear coding the entire thing of course )
It's easy, if you mess up, you can do spot repairs with the clear coat and when you polish it out you will not be able to see the repair. And if you don't like how it turned out, you can always Sand the whole thing down and start over.
 
#6 ·
funnyfarm29709 Thanks so much for this information. That's exactly what I needed to know and will be a great help when the weather finally warms up enough to do this.
I appreciate you taking the time to write this all up for me. That's part of what makes this site so addictive! :lol:
 
#7 ·
Water seperator

funnyfarm29709 Thanks so much for this information. That's exactly what I needed to know and will be a great help when the weather finally warms up enough to do this.

I appreciate you taking the time to write this all up for me. That's part of what makes this site so addictive! :lol:
Make sure you have a water separator on your air line.

Cheers!
 
#8 ·
I'm trying to decide if I want to attempt painting on my fairing. I always like to do things myself and enjoy learning new things. So I'm thinking I want to paint my MS fairing with a 2 tone scheme like this. (this is done in Photoshop).
View attachment 55879
My question has to do with the clear coat. I want the gloss to be consistent on the blue and black sections, so should I spray over the black center section with clear coat after I do the blue on the sides? If so, how would I prep the black section?
Do I need to sand it first with 1000 or 1500? I don't want to paint black if I can avoid another paint color. Just looking for help from painters on the right way to do this if I decide to go for it.
Another thing, if you are just adding blue stripes over the black paint, you don't need to use any primer at all. Also, as far as sand paper grit goes anything between 400 wet or dry and 1500 is OK, whatever you like. Finer paper, = better final product. (But its more elbow grease, but its a small item compared to a car.
 
#9 ·
That is some real good info there! I am looking to paint a trailer I just bought and that is a lot of time consuming work there, but being retired I have lots of free time. I may take it by my painter 1st to see what he would charge.


Dan
 
#10 ·
Make sure you have a water separator on your air line.

Cheers!

I have an HVLP sprayer and a traditional compressor and spray gun. Which do you recommend for this?
 
#13 ·
I dunno about anybody else, but I am impressed with your Photo Shop skills.:D
 
#14 ·
I dunno about anybody else, but I am impressed with your Photo Shop skills.:D
Thanks Tex. I'd rather have painting skills like others here!:D
 
#15 ·
Here are the other ideas I am considering for my fairing. I hope to also do the trunk eventually, but want to decide on the fairing paint color scheme first.
I am leaning towards painting the left and right sides of the fairing rather than the center section.
I did another option with a wider blue band.
I would appreciate feedback on this which looks best? I know it's ultimately my decision, but just looking for input on this.
Thanks
#1 View attachment 234585 I'm leaning towards this setup.

#2 View attachment 234593 wondering if the wider blue bands look better.
#3 View attachment 234601 Center section in blue rather than the outside edges
#4 View attachment 234609 No color change; just pinstriping
 
#16 ·
So I finally got the time, the paint and the guts to try my hand at painting. Here is the final result. I'm really happy with it and it looks as good as the stock paint. I got the clear to lay down pretty well on the third coat so I only used 2000 grit to sand before using polishing compound.

I used paint from touchupdirect.com in spray cans. The output from the rattle cans seemed to be not as constant/smooth as it should be and I was afraid the final result wasn't going to be good. I followed the directions carefully and it really came out nice. I now have to get the Harley hard bags installed and start all over again with painting. :D

It took the entire can of color to do just this section of the fairing so I think next time I will go with a traditional sprayer and buy paint in cans. I got the pinstriping from Autozone and it also came out nice. The fairing now looks like it belongs on the bike.

Land vehicle Vehicle Motor vehicle Motorcycle Car
 
#22 ·
funnyfarm29709 Thanks so much for this information. That's exactly what I needed to know and will be a great help when the weather finally warms up enough to do this.
I appreciate you taking the time to write this all up for me. That's part of what makes this site so addictive! :lol:
Personally, though, I think with the way the rest of the bike looks, I'd just do the blue on the entire bottom half of the fairing, so it 'matches' with just the trunk being black and the rest blue. However, that's just me.
 
#23 ·
Good Job!!!

You do realize now you have to paint the sides of the fenders (black), and do some sort of black graphics on the side of the tank......
I need to paint the trunk two tone and finish mounting the Harley hard bags, then do the painting on those!
then I will be all done ... Or not! :D
 
#24 ·
Really sharp! I dig the X you added into the black. It the little things that make it yours when you do it yourself.
 
#26 ·
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